• Pension Records

    Pension Records

    As members of The Western Front Association will know, in 2012 the WFA stepped in to save from destruction over six million pension records of men who served in the Great War. Below are various articles...

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  • TrenchMapper (Public)

    TrenchMapper

    This portal enables users to study thousands of trench maps from the First World War. To benefit from the full capabilities of this, members can use the full version in the members area of the website...

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  • The Imperial Western Front: Free Online Course

    The Imperial Western Front: Free Online Course

    The Western Front Association in partnership with the University of Kent has produced a four-week course focused on the imperial dimension to the war on the Western Front.

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  • Stereoscope

    Stereoscope

    Stereoscopic, or 3D, photography was very popular at the time of the Great War. Use the Filter function to select your area of interest from the thousands of images from the conflict that are available here...

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  • Arrangements for the Armistice Day Ceremony: 11 November 2025

    Arrangements for the Armistice Day Ceremony: 11 November 2025

    We are pleased to say that once again The Western Front Association will lead the commemorations on 11 November at th...

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  • First World War soldiersʼ bottled messages found on Australian beach after 109 years

    First World War soldiersʼ bottled messages found on Australian beach after 109 years

    A chance discovery on a Western Australian beach has brought voices from the First World War back to life, as message...

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  • Can you help schools research their local First World War history?

    Can you help schools research their local First World War history?

    Volunteer as a research link for the Malcolm Doolin Award 2025 The Western Front Association runs an annual competiti...

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  • Royal Naval Division memorial to be rededicated in London

    Royal Naval Division memorial to be rededicated in London

    Image: Royal Navy The national memorial to the Royal Naval Division will be rededicated at Horse Guards Parade on T...

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  • Newly discovered letters reveal Rudyard Kipling’s search for his son

    Newly discovered letters reveal Rudyard Kipling’s search for his son

    Recently unearthed letters from 1915 have cast a fresh light on author Rudyard Kipling's desperate search for his son...

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  • A name for the fallen: how the MOD's ‘war detectives’ identified two Scottish soldiers

    A name for the fallen: how the MOD's ‘war detectives’ identified two Scottish soldiers

    Lieutenant James Grant Allan (left) and Lance Corporal Gordon McPherson. (Image: MOD) More than 110 years after the...

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  • The Western Front Association Calendar 2026 is now available

    The Western Front Association Calendar 2026 is now available

    We are delighted to announce that the 2025 Calendar from The Western Front Association is now available. As ever, thi...

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  • I Was There! Another chapter (playlist) completed: The Gallipoli Campaign is over !

    I Was There! Another chapter (playlist) completed: The Gallipoli Campaign is over !

    In the last few weeks, we've reached two milestones with the 'I Was There!' project. Episode 100 was published in ear...

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Benefits of Membership

The Western Front Association was formed in 1980 with the purpose of furthering interest in the history of the First World War of 1914-1918. We also aim to perpetuate the memory, courage and comradeship of all those who served, on all sides, across all theatres and fronts, on land, at sea and in the air and at home, during the Great War. The Western Front Association is non-political and does not seek to glorify war. For a modest annual subscription, our members receive a wide range of benefits including our regular, high-quality publications Stand To! and Bulletin six times a year, access to the Stand To! archive, Gun Fire Archive, Military Factsheets and Pension Records database. In particular, belonging to The Western Front Association provides you with the opportunity of meeting like-minded people to learn, share, explore and exchange information and knowledge of the First World War in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

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Join The WFA

Our aims are 'Remembrance and Sharing the History of the Great War'. You get 6 magazines per year. For more information on how to join and what membership options are available, please click the button below.

Click here to join

For all enquiries, please contact the office:
+44 (0) 207 118 1914

  • Where the money went - The financial cost of war by Roy Larkin

    Where the money went - The financial cost of war by Roy Larkin

    05 Nov 2025 19:30 Cambridgeshire

    Where the money went - The financial cost of war by Roy Larkin. This presentation will discuss logistics, how much it...

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  • ‘Gunners definitely, but not necessarily Arsenal fans’: The Field Artillery Brigades of the Four London Territorial Force (TF) Divisions 1914-1918’ a talk by Simon Shepard

    ‘Gunners definitely, but not necessarily Arsenal fans’: The Field Artillery Brigades of the Four London Territorial F...

    06 Nov 2025 19:15 Middlesex

    As war broke out in 1914 several of the artillery bridges of the London TF Divisions were on their way to their annua...

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  • Welsh Warrior at Ypres 1914: Captain Hubert Rees

    Welsh Warrior at Ypres 1914: Captain Hubert Rees

    07 Nov 2025 19:30 Wales (South)

    Welsh Warrior at Ypres 1914: Captain Hubert Rees a talk by Peter Hart Peter Hart's Welsh Warrior at Ypres 1914: Capta...

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  • Skipton's POW Camp and its German prisoners by Anne Buckley

    Skipton's POW Camp and its German prisoners by Anne Buckley

    08 Nov 2025 14:00 Yorkshire

    This talk is based on Prof Anne Buckley's research and her translation of Kriegsgefangen in Skipton, a memoir written...

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  • “Faithful and True” Lt. Col. Edwin Richardson and the British War Dogs School

    “Faithful and True” Lt. Col. Edwin Richardson and the British War Dogs School

    08 Nov 2025 14:30 Wolverhampton

    Luci Gosling   A look at the role of dogs during the Great War with particular emphasis on the pioneering work of EH...

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  • THE BATTLE OF CORONEL – 1ST NOVEMBER 1914

    THE BATTLE OF CORONEL – 1ST NOVEMBER 1914

    10 Nov 2025 19:30 Staffs (North) & Cheshire (South)

    Welcome to the Staffordshire (North) and Cheshire (South) branch of the WFAThe Branch meet on the 2nd Monday of each...

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  • 'The Man Who Shod War Horses by Martin Jones'

    'The Man Who Shod War Horses by Martin Jones'

    11 Nov 2025 11:00 Lancashire (North)

    Please note that there is no evening meeting in November.  This meeting is a daytime meeting at at the same venue as...

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  • Death and Service  - Richard Cooper - Knight

    Death and Service - Richard Cooper - Knight

    12 Nov 2025 19:30 Somerset

     Local author Richard Copper- Knight continues his quest to visit and research the details of over 800 servicemen and...

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  • Essex Branch Members Night

    Essex Branch Members Night

    12 Nov 2025 20:00 Essex

    This month will be given over to short talks / presentations by Branch Members. This is a good way for members to giv...

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  • Laugh or Fly: The Air War on Western Front with Peter Hart

    Laugh or Fly: The Air War on Western Front with Peter Hart

    14 Nov 2025 19:00 Sussex

    We welcome back Author and Historian Peter Hart to our branch for the November meeting. He will be speaking about Lau...

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  • Passchendaele Remembrance Ceremony and Torchlight Procession

    Passchendaele Remembrance Ceremony and Torchlight Procession

    10 Nov 2025 18:30

    On the 10th November 1917, the village of Passchendaele was taken by troops of the Canadian Corps and this marked the...

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  • ONLINE: Le Cateau - A complete re-evaluation by Phil Watson

    ONLINE: Le Cateau - A complete re-evaluation by Phil Watson

    10 Nov 2025 20:00

    The presentation will be live and online. The verdict of history is largely based on the Official History and the wor...

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  • Ypres Poppy Parade and Remembrance Ceremony

    Ypres Poppy Parade and Remembrance Ceremony

    11 Nov 2025 08:45

    The annual Remembrance ceremony in Ypres this year will commemorate the 107th Anniversary of the Armistice on Tuesday...

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  • The WFA Commemoration Event at the Cenotaph 2025

    The WFA Commemoration Event at the Cenotaph 2025

    11 Nov 2025 10:00

    We are pleased to say that once again the WFA will lead the commemorations on 11 November at the Cenotaph in London....

    Event Details
  • Vimy Ridge - Remembrance Day Commemoration - 11th November 2025

    Vimy Ridge - Remembrance Day Commemoration - 11th November 2025

    11 Nov 2025 11:00

    Canadian students will be holding an act of remembrance at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, on Tuesday 11th Novem...

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  • Lochnagar Remembrance Ceremony - 11th November 2025

    Lochnagar Remembrance Ceremony - 11th November 2025

    11 Nov 2025 12:00

    The Friends of Lochnagar invites everyone to an Armistice Day remembrance Ceremony at Lochnagar Crater which will com...

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  • Beaumont Hamel - 51st (Highland) Division and Hawthorn Crater Remembrance

    Beaumont Hamel - 51st (Highland) Division and Hawthorn Crater Remembrance

    13 Nov 2025 10:30

    On the 13th November 1916, in one of the final engagements of the Battle of the Somme,after which the 51st (Highland)...

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  • ONLINE: “If All the Officers Were First Shot”: the importance of the First Contingent commanders to the CEF by Bill Stewart

    ONLINE: “If All the Officers Were First Shot”: the importance of the First Contingent commanders to the CEF by Bill S...

    17 Nov 2025 20:00

    The presentation will be live and online. Despite historian’s scathing comments on their suitability, the senior comb...

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  • ONLINE: Ireland and WW1; contribution and commemoration

    ONLINE: Ireland and WW1; contribution and commemoration

    01 Dec 2025 20:00

    The presentation will be live and online. During the course of WW1, over 200,000 Irish men served in the British forc...

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  • ONLINE: Allenby’s Sepoys: The Indian Army and the EEF in 1918

    ONLINE: Allenby’s Sepoys: The Indian Army and the EEF in 1918

    15 Dec 2025 20:00

    The presentation will be live and online. In 1918, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under Sir Edmund Allenby swept th...

    Event Details
Charles Wilton Illingworth was killed in action on this day in 1916. Charles Illingworth was born 10 November 1891 in South Ossett, Yorkshire, the son of Andrew, a fine cloth drawer and Sarah. He was christened on Christmas Day at South Ossett, Christ Church.  At the 1911 Census, Charles, aged 19, was living at home at No.6 Grove Street, Ossett with his parents,...

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5 November 1916 : Pte Charles Wilton Illingworth
Pension Records

Pension Records

As members of The Western Front Association will know, in 2012 the WFA stepped in to save from destruction over six million pension records of men who served in the Great War. Below are various art...

READ MORE
The Latest WWI Podcast

The Latest WWI Podcast

The Western Front Association's podcasts 'Mentioned in Dispatches' with Dr Tom Thorpe are an eclectic mix of relaxed discussions with all kinds of contributors: experts in their particular fields,...

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World War I Articles

World War I Articles

Articles on every aspect of the First World War written by experts in their field. Some were first published in Stand To! or Bulletin, others have been researched and written for the web. If you wo...

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‘I Was There!’ – The Great War in Their Own Words

‘I Was There!’ – The Great War in Their Own Words

The Western Front Association is pleased to present audio narrations of personal accounts from I Was There! magazine, bringing to life the voices of those who experienced the Great War first-hand...

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